Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos: A Social History of the Tattoo with Gangs, Sailors and Street-Corner Punks, 1950-1965
Explore the dark subculture of 1950s tattoos!\ In the early 1950s, when tattoos were the indelible mark of a lowlife, an erudite professor of English—a friend of Gertrude Stein, Thomas Mann, Andre Gide, and Thornton Wilder—abandoned his job to become a tattoo artist (and incidentally a researcher for Alfred Kinsey). Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos tells the story of his years working in a squalid arcade on Chicago’s tough State Street. During that time he left his mark on a hundred thousand...
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Explore the dark subculture of 1950s tattoos!In the early 1950s, when tattoos were the indelible mark of a lowlife, an erudite professor of English--a friend of Gertrude Stein, Thomas Mann, Andre Gide, and Thornton Wilder--abandoned his job to become a tattoo artist (and incidentally a researcher for Alfred Kinsey). Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos tells the story of his years working in a squalid arcade on Chicago’s tough State Street. During that time he left his mark on a hundred thousand people, from youthful sailors who flaunted their tattoos as a rite of manhood to executives who had to hide their passion for well-ornamented flesh. Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos is anything but politically correct. The gritty, film-noir details of Skid Row life are rendered with unflinching honesty and furtive tenderness. His lascivious relish for the young sailors swaggering or staggering in for a new tattoo does not blind him to the sordidness of the world they inhabited. From studly nineteen-year-olds who traded blow jobs for tattoos to hard-bitten dykes who scared the sailors out of the shop, the clientele was seedy at best: sailors, con men, drunks, hustlers, and Hells Angels. These days, when tattoo art is sported by millionaires and the middle class as well as by gang members and punk rockers, the sheer squalor of Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos is a revelation. However much tattoo culture has changed, the advice and information is still sound: how to select a good tattoo artist what to expect during a tattooing session how to ensure the artist uses sterile needles and other safety precautions how to care for a new tattoo why people get tattoos--25 sexual motivations for body artMore than a history of the art or a roster of famous--and infamous--tattoo customers and artists, Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos is a raunchy, provocative look at a forgotten subculture.BooknewsSubtitled A social history of the tattoo with gangs, sailors, and street-corner punks, 1950-1965. Nearly 40 years ago, the author gave up his career as an English professor to become a tattoo artist. At the urging of his friend Dr. Alfred Kinsey, he kept a daily journal for many years about his experiences, from which this anecdotal analysis is derived. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Foreword1Introduction3Pt. IFrom Academia to Skidrow7Pt. IIA Cut-Throat World19Pt. IIIDr. Kinsey [Prometheus] and the Shop37Pt. IVSex and the Tattoo: Motivations45Pt. VThe Folklore of Tattooing81Pt. VIThe Clientele91Pt. VIIBarnacles and Leeches139Pt. VIIIExcuses - Mine and Theirs, Before and After149Pt. IXMasters, Methods, and Maladies157Pt. XArt and the Tattoo167Pt. XIThe Tattooist and His World173Pt. XIIThe Vanishing Art ...?179App. AA Brief Historical Sketch of Tattooing183App. BA Note on the Literature of Tattooing193Index199
\ BooknewsSubtitled A social history of the tattoo with gangs, sailors, and street-corner punks, 1950-1965. Nearly 40 years ago, the author gave up his career as an English professor to become a tattoo artist. At the urging of his friend Dr. Alfred Kinsey, he kept a daily journal for many years about his experiences, from which this anecdotal analysis is derived. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)\ \
